


A Butler's Duty

by Jinxin



Series: Joker [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-05
Updated: 2016-03-05
Packaged: 2018-05-24 20:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6165673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinxin/pseuds/Jinxin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story of a young Jakob's absolute dedication to his lady.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Butler's Duty

It was half-past three and the unrelenting wind knocked an overgrown tree branch against the glass of Jakob’s window in an arhythmic manner that set his teeth on edge. He’d take a saw to the old oak tomorrow, he swore and reached for the pitcher of ice water he’d placed by his bedside earlier that night. It was lukewarm now and disappointing—the ice had melted more quickly than he’d thought. 

Fourteen-year-old Jakob rarely had difficulty falling asleep. Being a butler was physically taxing in a way he never imagined it would be and most nights he collapsed into his increasingly cramped bed without issue. The oak tapped on his window at the slightest breeze and it had never grated on him so before. Usually he considered it a mild irritation at worst. 

In truth, the cause of Jakob’s insomnia was a hard pit of anxiety rolling around in his stomach and amplifying each vague anxiety and petty annoyance. He wasn’t superstitious, but he couldn’t rid his body of a lurking sense of wrongness. 

The first screams both scared and relieved him, a welcome break to the building tension he’d been acutely attuned to all night. He leapt from his bed, toeing on his slippers and reflexively patting the wrinkles out of his nightshirt. 

A short distance down the hall, a crowd of servants whispered frantically to one another. They were gathered around something but were packed too densely for him to see whatever it was that commanded their attention. Luckily, Jakob spotted Flora, one of the maids that arrived at the castle around the same time as he had, on the outskirts of the group. 

“Flora, what happened?” he asked. 

She whirled on him and he noted she was still dressed in her uniform. Odd; he hadn’t thought she was on duty at this hour. “There’s been an attempt on Lady Corrin’s life!” she cried. Her lip trembled as though she were about to cry and he dearly hoped she wouldn’t. He was not keen on lending his shoulder to anyone save his lady. Furthermore, he had no interest in comforting an upset maid when the princess could be…

“Is she hurt?” he asked more urgently. The slight relief he’d felt earlier was replaced by cold dread. ‘Attempt’ implied failure, meaning his mistress had survived, but if she had been badly wounded—well, even with healing staves, children were such fragile things. Flora was the more eloquent of the two Ice Tribe siblings by far but she seemed to be struggling with her words. Jakob wished she’d regain her composure.

“No—I don’t think so, but she’s had an awful fright. The worst part is that it was the chef’s own apprentice who attacked her!”

Though his lady’s welfare remained a priority in his mind, Jakob stumbled over the notion that the assassination was attempted by someone within the fortress’ walls. In fact, Jakob knew the apprentice—a hawk-nosed boy named Alfred that snuck honey cakes when the chef wasn’t watching. 

“What happened to him?”

Flora didn’t answer immediately, but Gunter arrived, bellowing for the crowd to part and let him through. It was as the crowd began to move that Jakob became aware of a sharp, metallic smell. He only caught sight of one lifeless foot and bile rose in his throat. Vultures, the lot of them. 

Two men accompanying Gunter lifted the corpse and hurried it away from hungry eyes. Gunter yelled for everyone to return to their rooms and began to follow after the two soldiers when he noticed Jakob.

“You intend to leave the princess alone then, do you? Some devoted butler you’ve proved to be,” Gunter sneered and marched off. 

His harsh words shattered the surreal quality of the affair and Jakob dashed back down the hall. Corpse or no, the princess was his first concern. He knocked on the door at the very end and wondered how much she’d heard. 

“Go away,” said a small, wobbly voice.

“It’s me, milady. Please, let me in,” Jakob pleaded. 

He couldn’t hear well through the thick wood, but after a few pregnant moments spent fearing she would refuse him entrance, the door cracked open, exposing his little lady, hair loose and in disarray with fat tears rolling down her cheeks. 

“Jakob…” she whimpered, and flung herself forward, wrapping her small arms around his torso and wailing miserably. 

He carefully maneuvered her back into the room, letting the door click shut once more. It was not proper for a princess to embrace her male servant and much less so for him to reciprocate. The former could be excused, especially given the circumstances but he made sure they were hidden from prying eyes before he could be persecuted for the latter. One hand settled between her shoulder blades, rubbing soothing circles into the back of her nightgown while the other went to her hair, smoothing it down.

“Shhh…shhh…you’re safe,” he murmured. 

“I-I know,” she hiccuped, “I’m sorry.”

“You need not apologize, milady. You must have been so scared.”

“H-he had a knife a-and he came through the window. He said father k-killed his parents and I deserved to d-die,” she lapsed into incomprehensible sobs once more and Jakob continued to make soft noises while he combed through her tangled white mane. He could do only that much.

Her room was a mess. The bookshelf filled with gifts from Princess Camilla had fallen and strewn books across the room. The heavy, navy curtains were pooled on the floor alongside shards of window glass that glittered dangerously in the moonlight. 

He hadn’t heard the window break or the bookshelf fall. His room was only a few doors down the same hallway but he’d only heard her muffled scream. 

He recalled the blood on Gunter’s armor and realized the old man had been on guard duty. Tonight, he’d succeeded in that duty. Jakob would later learn that his lady had been scared speechless until Gunter had impaled the chef’s apprentice with his sword. As she watched the knife clatter to the ground, followed by his broken body, she screamed at last.

It was too dark to see blood splatters but Jakob sought them out anyway. He pondered how anyone could have let the princess remain in her room alone in such a state—even for a short time—before realizing that was his job. 

“You shouldn’t sleep here tonight, milady,” he said, “I’ll ready a bed in one of the guest rooms.” 

“…I don’t wanna be alone,” she said quietly. He could barely hear her—her face was pressed into the fabric of his shirt, further muting the soft sound. 

Any intention Jakob had of putting the princess to bed and returning to his room vanished. “Of course, milady. I’ll sit at your bedside until you’re able to sleep.” 

It would have been far more sensible of him to have promised Felicia’s presence instead of his own. The clumsy maid, though inept in many ways, sincerely adored the little princess and would undoubtedly remain at her side throughout the night. He’d been mildly surprised to find the maid absent from the entire affair but remembered her temporary relocation to the stables after an embarrassing incident with a nobleman that demanded she be fired for her ineptitude. Gunter, who managed the Northern Fortress, elected to reassign her for a time to appease the noble. Besides, hostages couldn’t really be fired, Jakob mused. 

In any case, the stables weren’t far. Felicia could be sent for easily, but Jakob selfishly claimed this moment. He’d been stunned and disgusted when he saw Alfred’s lifeless body, but a deep, desperate fear had set in at the same time. This was the first attempted assassination on his lady. Presumably most nobility—especially in Nohr—dealt with such attacks, but Princess Corrin was too sheltered. Many hardly knew she existed, much less felt anger towards the sweet, young girl of ten. Ten. The hawk-nosed kitchen boy fixed upon a child for his vengeance. Perhaps he was biased, but Jakob abhorred the mere thought of it. 

His lady could have been brutally murdered just a few short minutes ago while he lay in his bed, debating tree care. He was ashamed and fearful that next time—and he prayed there would be no such time—Gunter would not be so quick. 

He’d wanted to see with his own eyes that she was unharmed. But even now his fingers itched to hold her more closely, as one of her siblings would have been allowed, but he resisted the urge, gently extricating himself from her fragile arms. 

“Normally, I’d ask you to wait here while I ready the bed, but why don’t you accompany me, milady? This place must burden your mind greatly and you ought to sleep after such a trying ordeal.”

She frowned at the distance he’d placed between them but remembered herself. Pride welled up amidst the fear and guilt. At such a young age after a tremendously traumatic event, his lady was able to restore her ingrained poise, walking alongside him with her back straight and eyes miraculously dry. 

There were guest rooms on their floor, but Jakob led her down one flight of stairs, deciding she would sleep more soundly further away from the…well, the mess. 

He deftly stripped the guest room’s bed of its sheets and replaced them with clean ones from the room’s single wardrobe. Perhaps they were already clean, but as he did not oversee this area of the castle himself, he preferred to take the extra time to be certain. 

Alone again, Princess Corrin started to sniffle. She’d held up well in their brief walk through the halls and he said nothing as fresh tears leaked from her eyes. He could hardly fault her for that. 

When the bed was made, he pulled the covers back for his mistress and she offered him an unsteady ‘thank you.’ 

“Would you like me to fetch you a glass of water?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Are you really going to stay?”

His chest clenched at the uncertainty in her voice. He knelt beside her and took her much smaller hand between his own. “Corrin, I will not leave you alone,” he promised.

It was entirely improper for him to address a princess so informally, but he’d long since noticed she preferred to be addressed without titles. Sadly, he could not oblige her most days, but he did now. He wanted her to believe him and trust that he truly cared for her as a person as opposed to a duty-bound butler. He’d remain at her side indefinitely, if she allowed him. Without her, his life had no purpose.

“I love you, Jakob,” she said gratefully. His words seemed to have soothed her and she even managed a watery smile. Jakob smiled back and released her hand. 

She feel asleep quickly, exhausted by the emotional toll of the night, and Jakob made himself comfortable in the chair by the window. 

He loved her too, she must have known, but her love was of the same kind she held for each of her siblings. His wasn’t so different in nature, but even at that juvenile time, he knew. He served only her; he loved only her. And eventually, he’d kill, only for her.


End file.
